Oculus Connect conference gets a new name: Facebook Connect

Facebook’s annual conference for alternate and virtual reality projects has gotten a new name, and it’ll be going virtual this year. Facebook Connect — formerly known as the Oculus Connect conference — will be held on September 16. Like many tech conferences during the age of coronavirus, the conference will be entirely digital as well as free to attend. The event will feature keynote addresses from “Facebook leaders and industry visionaries” and offer “immersive developer sessions” for attendees, the company said in its announcement on Tuesday. “Over the years, Connect has grown to include so much more than Oculus, with research updates and product news from Spark AR to Portal from Facebook,” the social media giant said in a blog post. The conference has been held for the past six years. Facebook’s AR/VR research division will also drop “Oculus” from its name and will be rebranded as Facebook Reality Labs (FRL). The new name serves to “encompass the expansive work being done at Facebook as we build the next computing platform to help people feel more present with each other, even when we’re apart.” Facebook said FRL will continue developing hardware and software, with a commitment to users’ privacy. The rebranding — which Facebook said would provide clarity — is the latest move to integrate Oculus more seamlessly into Facebook’s overall ecosystem. Earlier this month, Oculus made a controversial announcement that new users would need to sign in with a Facebook account to use the device. Existing users will also need to sign in by January 2023. Apple is making final preparations for the highly anticipated launch of the Vision Pro, the $3,499 mixed-reality headset that it unveiled in June. As it’s a new product line for the tech giant, a crucial part of the preparations includes training Apple Store staff on how to present it and demonstrate it to potential customers. Facebook owner Meta is planning to introduce chatbots with distinct personalities to its social media app. The launch could come as soon as this September and would be a challenge to rivals like ChatGPT, but there are concerns that there could be serious implications for users’ privacy. The idea comes from the Financial Times, which reports that the move is an attempt to boost engagement with Facebook users. The new tool could do this by providing fresh search capabilities or recommending content, all through humanlike discussions. Apple has touted its Vision Pro headset as a premier gaming device that works with many different controllers. But with extensive gesture control seemingly used everywhere on the product except for gaming, it feels like a missed opportunity. Well, that could change in the future, as a newly published Apple patent (number 11709554) shows how future editions of the Vision Pro could transform your hands into gaming controllers, complete with fingertip controls and haptic feedback.